Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Keystone Question

22 Comments

I haven’t studied this in detail, but my dim understanding is that the objection is to potential environmental impacts to the Ogallala Aquifer (that’s the official objection — we all know that the eco-loons real problem with it is that they hate fossil fuels). So why not propose starting the pipeline at the two ends now, at the Canadian border and in Houston, work toward the center, and defer the final routing of that section until they’ve studied it more? If they refuse to do this, we’ll have put the lie to their objection and showed their real agenda.

22 thoughts on “Keystone Question”

  2. I don’t understand why the Cushing-Houston/Port Arthur segment couldn’t be built as an extension to the already existing Keystone pipeline, in fact it was already my understanding that this was the plan .

    The problem is that if Obama is reelected in 2012, Keystone XL is dead, as is much of the long term future of refining in Houston-Beaumont-Port Arthur, so the Cushing segment would be a huge waste of capital.

  3. Canada should threaten to run the pipeline to Lake Superior, and then to ship the oil from there on tankers. The prospect of tanker spills in the Great Lakes should really annoy the environmentalists 🙂

    1. We’re going to run a pipeline to the Pacific coast and ship it by supertanker to Asia. If the Americans don’t want our oil, China does. At any rate, we’re going to pump the oil here in Alberta regardless, and it will be used by someone.

  4. One thing to keep in mind is Canadian tar sands crude is only one part of what’s happening. Another part is Bakken:

    The real shift has come in the past two years as companies honed drilling techniques, leading to bigger wells, faster drilling and lower costs. Marathon, for example, last year took an average of 24 days to drill a well, down from 56 days in 2006.

    That has opened up new areas that weren’t previously worth drilling in and made wells profitable at prices as low as $50 a barrel

    Right now it’s being transported by truck and rail, but pipeline is being laid. And Montana has significant refinery capacity, and a positive attitude about building more. Even if the Canadian crude ends up going west, and mostly to Asia, we’ll still benefit here with lower prices.

    Make no mistake; this application of new technology and methods is a trend. One that will continue. Eventually the luddites are going to find themselves in a loosing game of whack-a-mole. Using the wrong side of a ball peen hammer.

    1. Oil is fungible, so yes, selling oil to Asia can lower prices in the US. But the jobs available for refining the oil isn’t as fungible.

      1. But the jobs available for refining the oil isn’t as fungible.

        Location, extraction, transport, refining, transport. The employment loss alone is probably at a level that is incalculable. Add the loss to fed (us) income and it becomes something else. Sarah might use “tragedy”.

  5. The trans Alaska pipeline wouldn’t have a prayer of being built under Obama, and that was a Jimmy Carter signature project. That says something.

    1. Pipeline Quick Facts

      The Trans Alaska Pipeline System was designed and constructed to move oil from the North Slope of Alaska to the northern most ice-free port in Valdez, Alaska.
      Length: 800 miles.
      Diameter: 48 inches.
      Crosses three mountain ranges and more than 30 major rivers and streams.
      Cost to build: $8 billion in 1977, largest privately funded construction project at that time.
      Construction began March 27, 1975 and was completed May 31, 1977.

      http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html

  6. The Ogallala Aquifer is just a strawman argument to mask their true intentions to try to force everyone in the US off fossil fuels. The southern portion of the Ogallala goes down to the lower Texas Panhandle into the northern portion of the Permian Basin oil patch. Oil has been drilled for and pumped from that part of Texas through the aquifer since the 1920’s and the aquifer has not been contaminated. The pipeline will not do it either.

    Any engineer who thinks about that argument for 3 microseconds can destroy it. A normal person can in a few minutes, if he/she has been reasonably well educated, which anyone who’s went to high school in the last 30 years has a high probability of not being.

  7. There are no green policys that will work, that is profitable green rent seeking companies, unless Oil is priced above 100.00 per barrel. Since the Dems have invested money and political capital in the whole mess there is no other course for them.

  8. The largest reserves of oil in the world are actually under Venezuela, greater even than the Canadian tar sands or in the middle east. Because of that, the refining complex in Houston-Beaumont-Port Arthur will do alright. In fact, the reason the pipeline is headed to the Gulf Coast is because the refineries there are already well suited to the heavy crude from Venezuela or Canada.

    If they don’t refine oil from Canada then they will continue to do it from Venezuela. That’s the real issue. Do we want our primary supplier to the Gulf Coast complex to be Venezuela or Canada?

    1. Indeed. The conflict oil notation is certainly a play on other arguments, but it really is a point of consideration. Certainly, if the US doesn’t buy oil from Venezuela, someone else will. But at least the US wouldn’t be buying oil from Venezuela.

      1. Not to mention the fact that in the case of an all out, Big Shot, no kidding war, the US would have a solid, secure energy source.

        1. Yup, domestic energy production, and to a lesser extent production by dependable friendly neighbors (Canada), is a national security issue.

    2. Jardinero, please enlighten us with your sources for this claim. I’ve never heard such a thing before …

        1. The irony for the greenies is that with higher fuel efficiencies and plentiful oil so near by, Americans can continue to drive cars with internal combustion engines for at least another 200 years.

Comments are closed.